Repurpose Old Paintings

I like to repurpose my art.  If a painting on either canvas or paper sits around long enough it just might get a new ‘purpose’.  Recently I’ve been working on a series that was inspired by a knitted hat.  Between painting my painter friends in their plein aire painting hats, I began to create a hat myself.  

Because the original hat was knitted I decided to ‘deconstruct’ a knitted sweater to use as the means to weave strips of painted paper thru.  I cut up two paintings I had done on paper.  I wove the paper thru the pieces of the deconstructed sweater.   When I had enough new ‘fabric’ I cut it into pieces to create a bucket hat. Then the hand sewing began!  It was a slow process pushing the needle through the layers of paper.  I will finish the hat by gently steaming it to soften the shape.